Surfing Filey Bay!...Tuesday 29th December 2015.

A trip out today seen as how it was such a nice day,saw Trace and myself heading to Filey for a change,i thought this was a great idea with the continued presence of the young male Surf Scoter and views of this North American duck would certainly be on the cards.
 After enjoying some very good food at the Cobble Bar And Bistro we made our way along the beach and onto the Brigg itself.
 As we walked along the Brigg side a few small flocks of waders included a single Purple Sand,which are always great to see.
 A few scans of the bay eventually revealed the young male Surfie,but he was quite active in the choppy water and quite distant,but at least i had seen him.I knew he would probably come in closer at dusk to roost,so we carried on to look off the Brigg.
 Several scans of the sea saw a handfull of Guillemots passing by and some added interest was provided by a colour-ringed juvenile Shag loafing on the rocks.The Darvic ring was blue with DNS inscribed in black lettering on the left leg and a silver BTO style ring on the right.With a little investigating this bird may have originated from the Isle Of May,but I'm awaiting confirmation.
 Back to the star bird and he did exactly what i expected and had drifted into the bay corner as the tide was coming in also.With the bird much closer now i could study the ID features much easier,with the wedge shaped head profile now being seen along with the pale nape spot,pale eye and some slight colouration coming through on the bill.I really do enjoy educational birds and this was my first sighting of an immature of this species,all of my previous ones being adult males and the last here in the same spot in June 2013.
 As the sun set i took a few photos as we made our way back to the car after an enjoyable visit to this lovely seaside town and birding site.

Colour-ringed Shag.

Oystercatcher as the sun set.